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Hollywood gathers to pick over Limewire’s corpse

Whip? Check. Dead horse? Check.

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Movies studios are moving on the defunct Limewire, filing a complaint in a US Federal Court to take their cut from the company’s copyright infringments.

Following a 2010 summary judgment against the company in a case brought by record labels, the company last year settled with the music industry majors for $US105 million. That judgment and settlement are now being cited by Hollywood in its complaint against the company.

The plaintiffs include Twentieth Century Fox, Viacom, Comedy Partners, Disney, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. According to Courthouse News Service, the studios say that “the illegality of LimeWire has been fully and finally adjudicated by the court” with the Lime Group “liable for engaging in and facilitating massive copyright infringement”.

CNS says the exhibit of infringed works includes South Park, Desperate Housewives, Family Guy, Alice in Wonderland, Avatar, Shrek, and Harry Potter.

Presumably, the studio’s will use last year’s settlement as a basis for trying to compute LimeWire’s liability. That settlement was the result of a case first launched in 2006, with the court ordering the service be closed in 2010. ®